Is it time to panic yet?

Bobbymanc said:
There is no reason to panic we can still get into the top four, progress in both the FA and Champs Cup. We have one of the best managers in the world, supposedly, so the future is not to bad. Next season will be a lot better, I hope.
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We keep on saying this every season only to be dragged back to the 4th spot race.
 
dubblue said:
Khaldoon said 6 months ago the bare minimum he expects is Champions league qualification and that last season wasn't good enough. He also said Sheikh Mansour is the most optimistic he has been in expectation of this season since the takeover. They can't be happy with how things have gone,it's been unacceptable. Will they panic?..No. Will they pull the trigger if we are out of the title race this time next year?..Yes. One thing is for sure there will be pressure on Pep to deliver next season that he will never have experienced.
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Yeah because the expectations are so much greater here than in Barcelona and Munich, fucking priceless some of you idiots tonight.
 
fatbloke said:
Yeah because the expectations are so much greater here than in Barcelona and Munich, fucking priceless some of you idiots tonight.
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So if we finish outside the top 4 he won't have as much pressure on him as he would at those clubs?maybe that's the problem. Go to City its easy street.
 
The truth is that ever since the Derby defeat at OT (4-2) we have been capable of this type of result........the problem is that the majority of the players that played in that game are still here.
We really do lack physicality and speed in midfield, plus we have the well documented full back issue......2 years ago Sagne was our worst fullback....now our best.....has he improved or the others got worse...probably a bit of both.
What we are really lacking though is a leader......barring Kompany we just haven't got one....hence our dreadful record when losing at half time.
As for panicking.......Pep failing could set us back years......we would face difficulty in attracting the best players, managers and even financially I'm sure we would struggle to meet financial fair play without champions league football.
Up until two years ago I always thought that if we got Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany, Yaya, Silva and Kun on the pitch, that we could beat any other premiership team.....they are all still here......the only one playing anything like is Silva.....the others are all in decline. (With the exception of Hart)......so maybe not panicking but worried..... Definitely.
Perhaps, rather naively I thought Peps arrival would solve most of the issues.....I still remain hopeful, however he is partly to blame along with the decline in the aforementioned players......his constant changing of personel and tactics, along with his signing of Bravo ( even if we do accept that Jo had to be replaced due to none football reasons) need to be reigned in to give us even half a chance of making the top 4.
 
What makes me panic is that we are seeing Pep, for the first time, actually try to rebuild a side. He had ready made teams for him at Barca/Bayern (yes I know he helped some of them in the academy but he didn't have to actually build the team).

Now we are looking at his decisions - Bravo for Hart, an injury prone Gundogan as our only true midfield acquisition, allowing our backline to continue to decay, Stones, etc.....and it gives us cause for concern. A lot of concern.
 
For our future no..

For this season yes, we won't win a trophy and 4th looking a tall order with our last two months form.
 
No way we're finishing 4th for me. Just not got good enough players specifically at the back. Also in poor form going forward. Pretty bad combination!!
 
Bluearmy said:
No way we're finishing 4th for me. Just not got good enough players specifically at the back. Also in poor form going forward. Pretty bad combination!!
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Agreed.

Obvious we have needed a complete clean out of the old guard sometime ago and we are paying for it now.
 
KnaresboroughBlue said:
No. Just need to go back to playing to our strengths as we did at the start of the season.
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Fixture list beginning of season:


Saturday 24 September 2016
Saturday 17 September 2016
Saturday 10 September 2016
Sunday 28 August 2016
Saturday 20 August 2016
Saturday 13 August 2016
If getting a silly easy fixture list (United excluded) at the start of the season is playing to our strengths, I think we will have to wait for next season for that to possibly happen again.
 
hmm. strange thing is i thought we were good in the first half. pretty much the same as at west ham. although i must have dreamed that we won that game 5-0 just last week. then everything was great. yesterday if we get the penalty we should have had the game changes. the crowd were so quiet as city were passing all around everton. then as has happened far too often this season one bad pass and our defense goes missing 1-0 down from their only attempt on goal. ok. 2nd half we will batter them and win 3-1 i reckon but no we concede in 2 minutes slight unfortunately in my opinion although i agree our new keeper who is just simply not tall enough is beaten yet again by a shot across him. then everton defend with 9 and just hoof it to lukaku for 20 minutes and yes finally we see our players thinking this is not our day. heads went down. the 3rd goal is poor and the 4th well what can you say. things change so quickly. get the pen and we will probably win this game easily. so panic no way. title has gone ok but top 4 even 2nd is still there. if we get murdered next week by spurs please ignore this post.
 
mancyman said:
yesterday if we get the penalty we should have had the game changes.
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Depending on the mercy of referees is hardly the sign of champions.

We had two decent chances in the first half, Sterling and Silva, with Sterling's poor touch letting us down. Penalty? Not for me. He had already lost control of the ball. Had he chipped the keeper and the onrushing defender the penalty would most likely been given.

Had Silva taken the ball infield or taken the ball away from the keeper, away from goal, something better could have happened then what did. Silva's decision making let him down given the situation. Surely he must have seen the rushing keeper in the corner of his eye? Trying to dribble the entire defense once the situation was over, made things no better.

What worries me is that Pep claimed we created chances in the first half. What chances is he speaking of?

I understand the principle of possession. But when we are slow and immobile in the final third - all that position is for naught. Probing ad nauseaum leads to missed passes, and the counter is on, with our defense completely exposed.

This is what differs us from Barcelona. They have incredible mobility in the final third. Having Messi of course makes things no worse, a player that can make something out of nothing.

Spurs found us out early season and other teams have copied.

Drop deep, stay narrow, wait for the mistake, play into acres of space. With the space we leave open only bottom feeders fail to score.

The problem for me is we never switch it up. Well, except against Barcelona, and we all know how that went.

We expect to dominate possession in every game.

Which is what our opponents let us do.

Scoring goals after all trumps possession. Whether they stem from possession or counter attacks is of no concern to a coach who prefers winning over possession, which I assume all coaches do. Well, almost all.

Given the universes of space we leave in the back - figuring out a tactic against us is hardly worthy of a Noble prize.

Everton 4-0 Manchester City

Possession %
29.5/70.5

Shots On Target
4/5

Shots
6/13

Touches
457/864

Passes
274/674


4 goals out of 4 shots on goal tells its own story. While we had all the possession. Stats don't lie.
 
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Well, if we had won today I'd still think we had a chance at the league. That glimmer is probably all gone now. But I do believe we will finish top 4..it is going to be a real fight though. I accepted most hope was lost a month or two ago due to Bravo and the defense. The quality just isn't there but perhaps more importantly the intensity isn't. Some of the defenders on poor teams aren't as good as ours theoretically but they fight hard. Ours just don't have it in them now. They're old and rich.
 
3 defeats from the last 4 PL away games.
No need to panic, but it's equally ridiculous to pretend that we don't have a problem.

Also, we seem totally incapable of buying a player who walks into the team, because he's faster, hungrier, and technically more gifted than the previous incumbent. Instead, we sign a lightweight, inconsistent teenager, or an injury prone liability.
Consequently, we lose with last season's team and last season's weaknesses.
 
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